May 2017 100 Word Anonymous Competition

[Ashleyne]

**PLEASE DO NOT POST STORIES DIRECTLY TO THIS THREAD**

100-Word Anonymous Writing Challenge for May 2017


THEME: Madness


GENRE: Sci-fi



**PLEASE DO NOT POST STORIES DIRECTLY TO THIS THREAD**




Please PM (Private Message) all entries to me and I'll post the entries into this thread. Entries can be sent from now until May 26th 11:59PM GMT.


Once the challenge thread closes, a voting poll will be created where you can vote for your ONE favorite entry.


There will also be a guessing portion where you can try to match the Anonymous stories with their creators!


To PM me, click my profile and select 'Start a Conversation'. Good luck.

 

[Ashleyne]

The Last Night Boat

Suggs nodded to Thommo on the saxophone, the familiar intro loudly began.

He grinned while each of the ‘Nutty Boy’ audience hastily removed a pork pie Ska hat and donned a red fez.

This number was the highlight of the Madness reunion concert.

As Suggs bellowed out “Night boat to Cairo”, lasers beamed upwards in a spectacular spoke effect.

The incoming fleet targeted the source, the apes were attacking with pitifully underpowered weaponry.

Massive retaliation blasted down. For a kilometre around the venue all life was instantly incinerated.

A burning red fez fluttered onto bubbling tarmac, Earth’s invasion had began.

 

[Ashleyne]

Transcription of the Patient's Statement

I cannot understand why you think I am insane. I have answered all your questions rationally, submitted to your humiliating tests and procedures, endured confinement without complaint.

Have I not engaged in normal conversation with you? Argued my case with sound reasoning? Never lost control of my emotions? Even made you chuckle at one of my sardonic witticisms?

You must admit that my present state of interment would test the patience of a saint. Yet I have committed no crime, harmed no one.

Why will you not believe me? I should have flesh, not metal. I am not a robot!

 

[Ashleyne]

Oops! That Was a Mistake!


I look down at the bloodied body. “You really shouldn’t give Psyche Evals in private.”

I hurry back to the bridge, resume my post at helm.

“I trust all went well?”

“Of course, Captain!”

Earth was just coming into view. Not long out of FTL, those engines were still warm.

“Ensign, you’re even with the equator. I want the 38th parallel.”

“Sorry, sir.” I reach up, but instead of a course correction, I reignite the FTL engines.

“Ensign! What are you doing!”

They charge at me. I laugh.

“Hello, ma! I’m home!”

I throw the ship into light speed.

 

[Ashleyne]

Katy

"Katy, control your temper", they said. "Katy, don't hurt your brother; Katy, where's the cat? Katy, Katy, Katy!"

The doctors gave me an experimental brain implant, felicitamagdala, to make me happy.

It worked. I was always crying when I hit my brother, but nowadays I laugh. I used to sulk and hide the cat outside. Yesterday, I giggled as I burried her alive.

This is the happiest I've ever been, standing outside my front door, listening to my parents scratch and blubber. Listening to the crackle as the house burns. They'll never yell at me again.

 

[Ashleyne]

Aboard the Couloir Noir

I’m not alone in here.

The fire that killed Lansing was no accident, of that I’m sure. Bryce was with me at the time, but the vehemence with which he denied the existence of a potential saboteur revelled him as an accomplice.

Spacing him was an act of self-defence.

Since then items have been moved, systems activated, hatches left ajar - which proves someone else is aboard.

I have stimulants and a rivet gun. The ship is vast but won’t reach Alpha Centauri for another twenty-six months; time enough to hunt.

Time enough to kill.

I’m not alone in here.

 

[Ashleyne]

A good, old-fashioned end

A languid hand waved from a corpse drawer, and the scarlet-clad consultant watched.

" A bome inside a cadaver, you say? They can't pin that on us.
Ze AMA don't approve of my attempts to improve humanity, but don't accuse me of blowing up morgues. You can't make a superman by painting him over the walls."

Almost a pity that. Consultant Franklieber liked explosions and thunderstorms, the spectacular, but felt medical persona required more dignity.

"But come. Best not be here when it detonates."

The green-clad pathologist minion followed onto the street, while behind them the hospital erupted.

 

[Ashleyne]

Abandoned


"Why won't they let you and Mummy in? It's not fair."

The same question, every time. She leaned into me, my latex glove crinkled as she squeezed my hand.

"Have you made many friends with the other children?" I asked

"I'm not going in," she said.

I kneeled down, my face level to hers. "It's the last one, darling. Tomorrow you get to go on the big spaceship!"

"With you and Mummy?"

"Of course," I lied.

She beamed, then went inside. I turned away.

Outside the perimeter fence the acid winds ripped across the barren soil.

Dead. All dead.

Madness.

 

[Ashleyne]

Only a moment

It would have been Tuesday today, if not for my work. Every time I return, it’s five years later. Keeping friends is hard; they have moved on, changed. I’ve never met my boss, and I’m always seen by a different doctor. And every time, things have become more complicated on Earth.

The prison of reality is not for me. I prefer the singularity of light speed travel. So when they told me I was no longer fit for work, I ran away with their ship. If it causes madness, good. I prefer it. Pity it only lasts for a moment.

 

[Ashleyne]

Dancing with the Universe

From childhood, my sister was brilliant - always asking "why?" She became the youngest graduate, the most successful post-doc, the most acclaimed physicist, but despaired. "The harmonies of the universe are beyond human comprehension - like music to a buffalo."

***

I was appalled by her plan. "Don't," I pleaded. "It will send you mad."

"I must. By linking to an AI, I may understand."

When the link opened, she spoke her final words. "It's glorious."

For five days, with star-bright eyes, she danced to unheard music. She danced herself to death.

I weep for my grief, and her joy.

 

[Ashleyne]

Future Prospects

Think you're Napoleon? Like wearing a dead duck on your head? Enjoy talking to little pink balls of fluff that sit on your shoulder? Are you Frank one day, James the next and Ernest on Sunday?

If so, then Deepspace Corp is for you!

Verified research has found that an unhinged mind is untouched by the warp jumps required to get to deep field space. To put it simply, you can't be driven insane if you already are!

So, if the Doctor signs you off as certifiable, then you're perfect for us!

Deepspace Corp - to insanity and beyond!

 

[Ashleyne]

Alien Contact Has Been Established

"Congratulations, Captain Nancy, and Major Veruca. You're heroes. Earth's representatives are ready to speak to, Gnategnaro's Ambassador."

"Yes, sir." Nancy places a jar with google eyes, in front of the camera. "This is, Meep Meep."

"....................You're, nuts."

"They don't like, Meep Meep. Waaaahhhh..."

Veruca interjected, "You should not talk mean like that to, Meep Meep. And you made Nancy cry."

"Mrs. President. I warned you about anti-gravity effecting human brains."

"Umm...yeah."

"Meep Meep, sad. Nancy. Battle stations!" They put buckets on their heads.

"Orbiting space station, on course for Earth. Veruca. Fire lasers!"

"Pew-pew, pew-pew!"

 

[Ashleyne]

Coping Mechanism

After the meeting, Johnny said I’d failed; that everyone hated me.

“You’ll never be good at this. You’ll never be good at anything.”

I used to listen. For years, it was just him and me.

They weren’t good years.

Now, there’s three of us. “Andi?” I subvocalised. “Analysis?”

“It went well. You stumbled twice but recovered. The audience approved.” Andi’s voice, calm, level, in my ear.

I used to go to friends for support, until Johnny ruined that.

Then I got the implant. It’s a risk, having her hooked into my senses. It doesn’t work for everyone.

She saves me.

 

[Ashleyne]

Developing Madness

They plead, they implore, they rage. Why would you let something like this happen? Why won’t you fix this?!

In truth, I cannot. The program spiralled out of control long ago, its lines of code tangled, web-like, thick and intractable. I paw at it in futile desperation but its workings are lost to me. Maybe if…

But this is no Gordian knot – it cannot be cut clean. There is no restart, no reboot. All would be lost.

"People are dying!" they cry, and I weep. I am the developer. Their creator.

And I cannot save them.

 

[Ashleyne]

Segregation

Humus furrowed his scaled brows. "Which are the mad ones?"

Grel pointed to the belligerent ones. "Those ones."

Humus scanned all the human prisoners.

"Are you certain? I see indications of madness in both groups. Is that your professional opinion?"

"Yes. It is the likeliest of probabilities, though since they are a different race, we cannot be absolutely certain."

Humus sighed a stream of blue smoke.

"We must be cognizant of infection. Separate them."

So they divided the men from the women.

The human race eventually died off. The alien conquerors could not comprehend different kinds of madness.

 

[Ashleyne]

The Gravity of the Situation


Dale’s youth surprised me. I guess surfing gravity waves has certain implications on general relativity which could explain his otherworldly youngness. But it was more than that. He lacked coordination like a gawky teenager.


“My mind moves forward while my body moves backward. It’s enough to drive you batty,” he had said.


“Then why do it at all?” I asked.


“Money. Fame.” He eyed me. “Women.”


Indeed, he was irresistible. It would be madness to get involved with him. Too much danger. What if he died out there?


But it would be madness to say I didn’t want to.

 

[Ashleyne]

This Will Probably Get Me Promoted...

They've finally given me some responsibility. I've been asked to consider the oxygen problem, i.e. with some of the scrubbers playing up there probably isn't enough for the round trip.

I've approached it logically. On one side we have the remaining oxygen and the reduced capacity of the scrubbers. On the other the size of the crew.

Oxygen supply is finite, spares for the scrubbers are low, so really that just leaves the crew.

Anyway, I want to demonstrate some initiative so I've drawn up a list. No point in bothering the hierarchy with the details. I'll start tonight.